Tonight's Entertainment [Open]

[artemis]

Ah, the East side. Literally the most crime-infested and downtrodden area in the whole city, Artemis didn't even need to stress her eears or slip into her 'huntress mode' as she called it in order to hear the screams of fear, or pleasure, the blaring sirens and the loud music coming from all the nightclubs that plagued this place. One would wonder why these places still even thrived when people like Batman had taken to the streets, scaring the living daylights out of Gothamite scum, but to be honest Artemis felt that had only increased the thing.

Which brought her back to the scared little girl mindset in some corner of her mind, which was screaming at her that this was not a place for a little girl to get caught up in.

Then returned her Artemis persona which reminded her that she was as rebellious as they came, and what she was doing here in the first place. She had gotten some info on child labour bust going on around here, and she would be damned if she let something like that slip just because she was scared of a bunch of big fat a$$holes that led organized crime in this city.

"C'mon, Arty, get your head in gear," Artemis had a soft spot for children, considering how horrifically her own childhood had been robbed of her by the League of Shadows. She couldn't wait to stick her arrows into the bastards who were responsible for this.

With renewed resolve, the archeress snuck through the alleyways and rooftops of the East side, until she landed one one particular building. She could hear noise on the inside if she strained her ears, men laughing and music. Dark eyes narrowing, the blonde-haired protege of Green Arrow knew what to expect: a stripper, a bunch of depraved men, drugs and her intended target; the children.

Shaking her head at the people inside in disgust, she went around to the back of the club, as it was. Artemis looked at a few trash bins that were laying on the ground, getting an idea, as she went over to the trash bins and moved them aside to reveal a small window. "Always the same," she murmured under her breath, as she crawled through the window and found herself in a small storage room. She stood up and then closed the window. Artemis maneuvered through the storage room and went for the door. She opened the door and found himself in the kitchen.

"HEY YOU COSTUMED B**CH YOU CAN'T BE BACK HERE!" shouted a guy in an apron.

"Sorry… I'm just passing through," Artemis replied irritably, as she extended her bow and a moment later an arrow whizzed by the man's head, adhering to the wall behind him, before releasing knock-out gas. Immediately, the chef she assumed fell to the ground motionless.

Unfazed, Artemis moved through the kitchen and through a revolving door. Immediately after she exited the kitchen she was bombarded with the loud fast techno music of the club. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the packed club of guys and girls dancing provocatively all over each other, and in one corner she spotted her targets. By the way they were dressed, she figured they were crime bosses. Not the big leagues like Falcone and Galante, but she didn't really give a damn about their status. They had seven children crammed into a filthy hole of a room, while they collected support money and got free labor. They had the kids rolling coke into cigars.

That was all the evidence she needed.

"Hey, babe, what's with the outfit? I didn't know it was halloween," said a guy, as he approached and tried to coil his arms around her. Without sparing the scum a glance, she pushed him away and walked over to the table with the bosses. One of them looked up at her, and lowered his sunglasses to look at the green-clad vigilante.

"Ya tonight's entertainment, honey?"

Artemis smirked. "Oh, yes," moving swiftly, she pulled out a flash arrow out of her trick arrows and shot it into the table they were sitting around. They couldn't move out of the way in time, but Artemis closed her eyes on reflex at the last second. The flash that resulted sent the whole club into a frenzy. Most of them hadn't even seen her - they either expected the cops or Batman, which Artemis was perfectly fine with, considering they were all running for their lives. And she had called the cops.

She looked at the crimelords as they wobbled about, screaming about their eyes and how they were blinded. Back-flipping, she pulled out three bola arrows and fired them mid-air, tying them all up swiftly. She then turned to the children, who were at a corner, scared. She smiled at them. "Its okay," she reassured in the most motherly (sisterly) voice she could muster.

She heard a gun getting cocked just beside her and froze.

"I wouldn't say its okay, bitch," said one of the thugs, probably one of the lieutenants of the crimelords, who had a gun attached to her blond mop of hair.

Crap, thought Artemis.

"Drop the funny d-thing and hands up, toots," he said, forcefully.

"Its a bow," Artemis corrected.

"Ya think I give a crap what it is, girlie!?" he yelled into her ear, and growling at him like a true predator, Artemis reluctantly dropped her bow to the ground and raised her hands. Crap, she was in for it now...

[doe]

Jane washed her hands in the sink.

Elizabeth washed her hands in the sink. She looked up into the mirror. Finally she was beautiful. She knew she was beautiful. Her dark brown hair was long and silky traveling passed her shoulders and down her elegant red dress. While Jane’s eyes used to be a dull brown, they were now beautiful green. Her skin was soft and white as porcelain. Yes, Jane had finally found her life. Her perfect life. She was Elizabeth, wife of a low mobster.

No.

This life had a flaw. She noticed the wrinkle around her eyes and aging taking over her body. Yes, flaws. It wasn’t perfect. Her husband also lacked the amount of power she wanted. Elizabeth wanted more. Jane wanted more. But Jane realized this was only a transition life until the perfect one. She wanted the strength and confidence that came as being him….Bane….

She had escaped Blackgate over a month ago. In that time, she had transition to four lives. All lives were a step to her perfect life. She finally found herself in a position where she could run into a vigilante. If she could take one of there life, she could get to Batman. If she got Batman, she could finally reached the muscled man with so much power. Yes, this life was worth nothing. It held nothing to Jane, but she still was Elizabeth.

Elizabeth wanted power too. She wanted money. She wanted money from a rich husband. She wanted her husband to be successful. Jane wanted her husband to be successful.

She turned off the water and walked out of the bathroom into the grand room that usually would be filled with techno. Instead she heard screams and panic voices and then a quieting around her. Elizabeth panicked and searched for her husband. While Jane looked for her husband, she inwardly knew what was occurring. A self-proclaimed hero had finally decided to interrupt their business.

After finding her husband, Jane’s eyes went to the children. As expected a person in a green outfit was there. She was comforting the children, unaware of the man with the gun coming up behind her. When the big thug threatened the girl, Elizabeth wanted her dead, but realized potential. Jane wanted her dead and realized potential. Jane’s new life…it was right there. The green girl was young…Jane was young….

Elizabeth walked over to the current predicament. “Lenard, don’t shot her. This is all just a confusion,” Jane spoke Elizabeth's words perfectly. Jane was Elizabeth. She spoke her own words perfectly.

“Little girl, I really would appreciate it if you stayed away from my children,” she said walking up to the kids. Elizabeth knew each one. Jane knew each one.

dress and current appearance-> farm5.static.flickr.com/4089/5204809186_ff5b55ec14.jpg

[artemis]

Artemis had been slacking off. She knew she had. She had let her guard down and now she was paying for it.

Here she was, a girl who had been trained by the League of Shadows since before she could walk or talk. She could take down six hundred men unarmed... and she got held on gunpoint by four crimelords. Oh, the embarassment was... well, embarassing. She was happy Uncle Ollie wasn't anywhere within Gotham City's vicinity right now.

The guy cocked his gun. "Start talkin', toots," he said. Artemis gulped. Okay, maybe she could use Uncle Ollie's help right about now.

“Lenard, don’t shot her. This is all just a confusion,” upon hearing that, Artemis watched a woman in a red dress approach out of the corner of her eyes. “Little girl, I really would appreciate it if you stayed away from my children."

"Those children deserve a much better life than the one you're feeding them here..." Artemis almost growled it out, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"Hey, shut up!" Artemis clenched her teeth as the crimelord yelled into his ear, poking the gun into her head. He then turned to his 'wife'. "And you! Keep your opinions to yourself, woman! How many times have I told you not to irk me when I'm at--OOMF!"

The distraction was all Artemis needed as she moved swiftly to knee the man in the stomach, before grabbing him by the head, twirling him around in the air and sending him flying into the remaining three crimelords. They all screamed as they fell, before their thugs and lieutenants immediately reloaded their weapons and began open firing.

"Crap," Artemis cussed as she kicked the legs out from under a table just in time, bringing it up in order to shield her, the kids, and 'Elizabeth' as the criminals fired. The table was metallic, it would hold off for a bit. "Stay here," she told the children and the woman. She then leapt out from the table, barrelrolling across the floor before she stopped in a one-knee crouch, firing several arrows in rapid succession. The first one was a trick arrow - it struck the wall behind the thugs and smoke covered them, preventing them from seeing. But Artemis had seen them and memorized their positions. With her perfect aim, the remaining normal arrows hit them dead on. Some struck their hands and knocked the weapons away, others hit their legs and incapacitated them.

Panting, Artemis stood up as the smoke cleared away, revealing knocked out, hurt and very much disabled bodies. She walked over to them, to Lenard his name was, before punching his groaning form in the face, breaking his jaw. "That's for calling me 'toots'," she then turned to Elizabeth and the kids.

"Now what do I do with you?" she asked herself out aloud, not really knowing what to do with the wife of a crimelord.

[doe]

Elizabeth was inwardly panicking but held her calm expression. Jane was just calm. Jane had been in situations like these on multiple occasions. She watched with careful eyes as the girl escaped the crime lord. She studied her snarky remarks and the confidence in her moves. Jane wanted it. Jane wanted to be confident and witty.

Instead Jane was just a lowly wife. A lowly wife just yelled at by her husband. Elizabeth was furious. Jane was furious. But Elizabeth couldn’t do anything about it. She had to listen. She had to obey. Jane felt trapped. Jane felt trapped in this new life and this new skin. She wanted to rip the skin off of her for freedom and take her new life.

She would take her new life in green. She heard the gunfire in the girl direction and her own. Elizabeth was amazed they were shooting at her. They would never shoot at her. Jane was as well, festering over the flaws that kept fizzling to the surface like a burn wound. The girl though protected them with a table. Intelligent. Jane wanted that intelligence. The girl then leaped out from behind the protecting. Jane inwardly cringed. Her outfit. Her outfit was going to get hurt. She should have grabbed her when she was here.

Jane didn’t want holes in her outfit.

But the shooting stopped, and the girl came into view after kicking her husband of course. Elizabeth felt happy. Jane felt happy.

Now what do I do with you?

Elizabeth stood up again dusting off her form. Elizabeth was a strong woman. It was the reason Jane first took notice to her. Jane only liked stronger personalities or powerful influences because it benefits her. Elizabeth’s green eyes meet the girls. Transferring the color of the iris onto herself is the most difficult challenge of taking a life. Jane had become a master. Jane’s green eyes looked at the girl in green. “Little girl, again this is a misunderstanding. These are my children, and unless you want them living on the street, digging through the trash, and freezing through Gotham’s bitter nights, I suggest leaving them alone,” Jane spoke Elizabeth confident words. They were confident words Jane had heard the woman preach before when being questioned on child labor.

While Jane spoke she studied and took in everything about her future life. The way she moved subtly shifting weight from one foot to another to be prepared for any attack on either side. The way she held her bow. The way she tilted her head slightly. Jane was becoming her. Jane was memorizing her and taking it in as her own. Jane wished she had all her tools on her now, but instead she only had a single knife hidden on her thigh. It wouldn’t be enough to finish the job, but it could get it started.

[artemis]

Artemis scoffed at the other woman's claims about how the children were hers. There was something about that woman, something creepy. Artie didn't get good vibes from her, it was as if she was... she felt like, like a snake. With cold skin, no emotions, that slithers around searching for prey with its tongue, swallowing down whatever looks tasty.

Gut instincts. And her gut instincts were never wrong.

That's what the instincts her training in the League of Shadows dictated to her, at least, and her eyes narrowed as she stared into the eyes of the other girl, obsidian versus green. She glared back into those orbs, her mistrust of the woman, both personal mistrust and the one regarding the children combined making one potentially lethal glare.

"You look mighty slim for the mother of seven children, don't you?" she accused. "Drop the act, I know those children aren't yours. They wouldn't be in rags if they were, for one thing," she said, indicating the one that was hiding in the corner - who had previously been cleaning the mob bosses' ash tray. She then looked back up at Elizabeth.

"Move aside, or you'll go down with them," she threatened, clenching her fist around her bow, the muscles of her other arm tightened, ready to pull out her knock-out gas arrow and then flee with the kids. Then, she hesitated, considering it. She wasn't about to leave the kids behind with this woman, plus the police would be here soon. But if she honestly did care...

"Though, if you honestly care, I'm gonna take them to a place where they'll be treated well," Queen Industries' Home for the Homeless, where her and her mother lived and it was personally managed by Oliver Queen himself. It was a place where they would find a home, a proper home, she knew...

She glared at Elizabeth. "Now, step aside..."

[doe]

“You call yourself a hero, yet you threaten me like a common thief. And if you were to actually do your research, child, you would know I legally adopted all of them,” she stated taking an elegant step closer to the blond.

When the girl gave her response, Elizabeth let out a light laugh. Elizabeth understood the hypocrisy of her statement. Jane also understood the inner working of Gotham. Jane had lived all her lives here. Not all, but most. She understood the bureaucracy, the corruptness, the evil behind the city. She had been part of it. The few times Jane had experienced kindness through a life, it easily dulled her. She watched as her, her life, was pushed around and constantly manipulated. Jane would not live such a flawed way by bending to kindness. Jane would be more.

“There is no place they will be treated well. Foster homes and orphanage in Gotham lead to homelessness and starvation. If you plan on transferring the children to a different city, your taking them away from their home…your also assuming the government will let you. Oh little girl…” she began walking even closer to the teenager.

Jane…no Elizabeth’s eyes stared at her. Elizabeth was confident in her words, but would never risk getting so close to a vigilante, but Jane was in control now. Jane saw her new life. She wanted to touch it. She wanted to feel the skin that would become her skin. “you don’t yet understand the challenges of adulthood,” she began stepping even closer. There was no possible way the girl could draw her arrow at such a close distance. She was a far range fighter. Jane understood the weakness, Jane understood the flaw. She still wanted the life though. She wanted the life so she could get closer to her perfect one.

“you live in a world of simple answers. What an amazing world you must see?” she finished.

“I want to see that world,” Jane said in her normal voice her hand twitching towards the slit in her dress.

[artemis]

Artemis' glare intensified. "I never called myself a hero. I'm a vigilante. Not everything in my line of business is exactly legal or goverment authorized," she hissed at the other woman, before suddenly taking a few steps back as she moved towards her abruptly. Artemis tried to raise her bow but she was already too close.

That gut feeling of the woman being a snake intensified. She couldn't understand why; she was just a crime boss. Could she be a metahuman? And what was up with her? What was she suddenly going on about?

It was very hard to intimidate Artemis, considering she had been brought up in the League of Shadows. Yet, there was something about this woman that was just disgusting, but Artemis couldn't place her finger on what. It was not that she was enslaving children under the guise of legal adoption; it was something else.

"Hey, what are you-- stay back!" she exclaimed, as the woman rambled on about how she wanted to see her world in a starkly different voice from the one she had used before. Artemis, eyes wide, back-flipped and increased the distance between the two.

[doe]

Fear.

Jane saw the fear, and she couldn’t help the creepy smile that came across her face. Fear told Jane that the person was realizing they were not living their life to their full potential. Jane would live their life to full potential. Jane lived every life to full potential…until the life itself couldn’t handle how far Jane wanted to push it…until the life turned into a cage.

Jane watched as the blond girl back flipped away from her. As the girl went into the air, Jane reached down near her thigh and pulled out the large knife, the knife that would give her her life. While she pulled out the knife she ran over to where the girl would land. Never let the distance grow, determine weakness, exploit it, a past life reminded her. Jane might have been deemed mentally unstable, but she was very intelligent. Transitioning from life to life allows you to have broad knowledge of everything. When the girl landed, Jane stretched her long legs into a sprint. The sound of her heels clicking against the floor could be heard, but Jane didn’t notice. Elizabeth protested in the back of her mind, but Elizabeth was a previous life now. Elizabeth wasn’t there anymore. Elizabeth was only a shell Jane had been trapped in. Jane was free. Jane was bare. She needed a new life.

Jane tackled the girl onto the ground with full force, similar to how a football player would impact the other team. The rough treatment on Elizabeth’s skin caused part of the skin near her neck and collarbone to rip off. She struggled with the girl until she was on top. “It’s okay little girl. No need to panic. I will live your life better then you ever could,” she sweetly coed to the child underneath her.

Jane took no notice to the people around them anymore. No, she was only focus on the girl.

[artemis]

Artemis' eyes widened as she was tackled onto the ground, suddenly pinned under the weight of the much older woman. She thought she was definitely suddenly a part of a B-rated horror movie when she saw the woman's neck and collarbone slip off. Literally slip off... artificial skin or...

"GET OFF ME!"

Artemis yelled as she her martial arts training kicked into effect, with her kicking the woman off her, her booted foot landing on the knife-wielding woman's stomach and her above average strength causing her to go flying off her. Artemis looked around and immediately spotted her bow, which she had dropped, and barrel-rolled towards it, plucking it from the ground mid roll.

One a one-legged crouch, she pulled her hand back, put an arrow into the bow and shot it towards Jane Doe - who she was beginning to think was some kind of modern-age zombie. Artemis was scared, yes. She could deal with ninjas dropping in from random places trying to kill her, but zombies were another story. Her father had never prepared her for the undead...

Heck, she didn't even know there ever was an undead outside of movies!

"W-What the Hell are you!?" she stammered out, her voice laced with the same fear this snake apparently prayed on.

[doe]

As Jane stood up she felt more of Elizabeth’s skin peeling off of her. Her face had lost its hold and looked like a melting mask. Jane could still see though and that was all that mattered to her. If the skin got in the way she would just rip it off. Before she could even set a glare onto a girl, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

She looked down and saw an arrow sticking out of it. Jane frowned, that is quite a nuisance. She mentally noted that it missed the artery so with her other hand she reached up to the arrow and pulled it out. As she ripped the arrow out of her muscle Elizabeth’s skin came with it. Her entire shoulder was now just bare muscle. Jane tossed the arrow to the side then turned up to hear the girl's scared question. Oh fear, it meant Jane was closer to her goal…her new life.

Jane didn’t answer at first. Instead she brushed off the blood as if it were merely dirt as she walked to the side. If half her skin wasn’t falling off, she would still appear as elegant as Elizabeth had once been. “I’m you,” she stated, bending down quickly to grab the knife that had been knocked away from her only to toss it with the same precision she had learned years a go in a pass life. It traveled straight to the girl’s forearm, the one pulling back the string of the bow. She watched as the girl let out some pained noise and automatically release the string causing the arrow to come in her direction. Jane was prepared for this one though. She easily dodged the arrow as she watched the girl’s other hand travel the knife that was now half way stuck in her arm. The girl could pull it out, but she definitely would no longer be able to put as much force behind her archery. She might not even be able to pull back the string. Jane frowned at the fact she had to ruin part of her outfit, but she would not risk another injury. Her past wound with Killer Croc took weeks to heal. No, not again.

Jane walked towards the girl. She needed the knife after all if she were to get her outfit and her life tonight. “Little girl, you really should have thought more thoroughly on your decision to come to Gotham if you weren’t ready to meet people like me,” she said coldly. But a large part of Jane liked that factor of the girl. A sense of nativity Jane hadn’t felt in years. She wanted to feel it, and like a magnet Jane was drawn closer to her.

[artemis]

"UGH!" Artemis screamed as the knife embedded itself in her arm. She should have seen that coming, she thought with disgust, as she watched blood trickle down her arm and her grip on her arm. If her father had been here he would have slapped her senseless for letting her guard down like that and letting fear overcome her. The League of Shadows did not train people to fear...

Flashback...

A man, enshrouded in shadow with no visible features except his eyes stood in front of a much younger Artemis. "We don't fear. We become fear!"

...End flashback.

Artemis eyes snapped open and as she saw the woman approaching she stood up straight again, smirking. "You thought you could incapacitate me by striking my shooting arm away?" she suddenly switched hands, holding the bow in her injured arm and pulling out an arrow, aligning it with the bow, pulling back and pointing towards Jane Doe.

"Big mistake," she smirked. She was ambidextrous.

She fired the arrow without hesitating this time, and it seemingly missed Jane, landing at the zombie's feet. Immediately, however, it began to release pressurized steam which enshrouded the whole room. A smoke arrow. But Artemis was a ninja. "Mind your surroundings," her father had said, and despite the fact she hated the man, she remembered that he had taught her to rely on more than just a bow and an arrow. Disappearing into the smoke - she had already formed a mental map of the whole room - she navigated through the room sneakily as Jane was unable to see her.

A right hook, a left hook and a round-house kick sent Jane flying, crashing her into a nearby table. "I didn't come to Gotham, I live here," she hissed, her voice seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. "Though, I have to say, thanks," she smirked. "You reminded me that there's more to me than a bow and an arrow. I don't know why you wanna kill me, why you think you can pretend to be me, but you're not me. You don't want to be me either," she threatened menacingly.

The smoke disappearing and Artemis appeared in front of Jane, immediately picking her up with her good arm and head-butting her hard. The stench of decayed skin, living muscle and blood entered her nose as her face was near the other woman's, and she couldn't help but feel a gagging sensation. The head-butt caused Jane to fall to the ground in pain, and Artemis took a few steps back. "Ugh... you're disgusting!" she said, her hand wiping away the smell from her face. She then felt pain - her arm, it was hurting a lot. She had been to ignore pain since she was born. Her father had hit her with a lot more than a sharp knife - when she was three - but still, she could only tolerate it for so long. She had to...

Improvising, Artemis tore off the ragged remains of the shirt of one of the unconscious men in the room, tying it around her arm. But while she was distracted, she had given Jane an opportunity to recover - whom she had thought had been knocked out.

[doe]

While the hidden attacks were annoying she had dealt with such things before. When you’re a ‘villain’ in Gotham you run into to many people who have a liking for smoke bombs and hidden contraptions. Normally, she would have listened to the subtle movements around her, but the other people in the room made that more difficult then normal. She listened for breathing, but only heard the pants of the frighten guest. She listened for steps, but only heard the shifting of the people tied up. Jane scowled. Cheap tricks. Very cheap tricks.

Something slammed into her body knocking her back only to feel another pain attack her face and another against her legs. It almost seemed like it was coming from every direction, but Jane was smarter then that. She felt pain before. She felt kicks before. She felt punches before. She decided just to wait it out. She had endurance. It was unfortunate though that more of her skin was ripping off. She would be bare soon. She would be bare and nothing to hide her from herself. The idea made her cringe in disgust. She was knocked to the ground and decided to stay there.

She felt two hands pick her up and heard the despicable words come out of the girl’s mouth.

Disgusting.

It was one thing for Jane to hold deep insecurity issues, but it was a completely different thing for others to insult her. She would not have it! This pathetic little girl who could hardly throw a punch had no position to be insulting her. As she felt her body fall to the ground an intense amount of anger overcame her senses. She no longer wanted this child’s life. She was too stupid to even realize who she was messing with.

Jane stood up and with full force tackled the girl who stupidly let her guard down. She struggled to get on top but then she was straddling the girl again. “Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed?” she shouted as she punched the girl’s face in repeatedly. She felt the crushing of bone and the girl’s blood against her fist. “Do you have any idea who I’ve faced?” she shouted but her pounding was slowly diminishing she would not let this girl kick her off again. She saw her bows and pulled one out quickly. She stabbed it back into the girl’s thigh. If Jane acted fast enough she could create enough pain to send the girl into shock. “I’ve fought the Manhunter and Huntress at the same time. I’m sorry little girl but you don’t compare to either one,” she continued to yell as she grabbed another arrow slamming it into her forearm where the knife had first been.

“You know I could have lived your life for you,” she said softer pulling out another arrow. She brought the arrow right above her head aiming it for the girl’s heart, “But I think I’ll kill you instead.”

[Deleted]

The sound of some sort of a commotion is what draws Hawkgirl away from her thoughts and to the city streets passing below her. She's only just arriving at Gotham, having thought that she might pay the city a visit after spending too many days in peace. There were no global crises to solve, and things had even been quiet in St. Roch, so when she heard about the recent crime surge in Gotham she thought that she might as well go for a visit.

And her timing seems to be perfect tonight as she follows the sound of tense and frightened voices to where a night club seems to be emptying very quickly. And as she dives down for a closer look, her eyes go wide at what she can see through the front window. Seeing an arrow being lifted up and where it's being aimed, Hawkgirl's reaction is almost instinctive: someone is clearly about to kill someone else, and she doesn't need anyone to explain what's going on to know whose side she's on.

But she knows that she'll never make it into the club in time. Fortunately, she doesn't have to. Without really having to thing about it, she pulls her mace off of her belt and throws it ahead of her through the window, aimed squarely at the attacker's shoulder. And though she'd normally she'd hold back her strength a bit more to be certain that she wouldn't kill accidentally, when it comes to protecting someone whose life is so immediately in peril she'll err on the side of being too forceful and puts enough strength in the throw to knock the woman away from the girl.

Having sent her mace on ahead of her, Hawkgirl follows right behind it through the shattered window and comes to an abrupt landing between the two of them, crouching slightly and keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the woman. And it doesn't eyesight like hers to notice that she seems to be, well, falling apart just a little bit. "Jane Doe," she identifies, sounding disgusted.

[doe]

When Jane killed she felt utter happiness. To her it felt like breathing in a soul and absorbing it in her body. As she held her arms above her head a huge grin formed on her face. This girl wasted her life. She acted like it was a game. She acted like it was a joke. She didn’t deserve her life. Jane didn’t even see value in her life to take it on. It was unsalable and therefore, Jane would end it.

She was just about to push the arrow into the girl heart when something hard knocked her off the girl and across the room. With an umph she hit the ground, hearing the sound of something landing next to her. It hurt, but like with most pain she ignored it. She forced her eyes opened and saw a mace. She frowned. No one these days carried a mace with them unless they were some type of hero. She turned her eyes as she pushed herself off the ground. There crouching on the groun was a woman with wings and bird eyes of some sort. She heard the name people choose to call her by as she wobbled on her feet for a moment. More of his skin was coming off. Elizabeth would soon be a memory.

“Yes that is what some call me, but with the many names I take on it is hard to keep track,” she stated calmly as the light-headedness and dizziness slowly focused. She looked at the in pain girl on the ground and the other hero of some sort in front of her. “I assume you have multiple names as well. What are they?” she asked taking a step forward, but stopping.

This woman had strength and power that didn’t compare to the girl. If Jane was prepared to handle two heroes she would be find with this current situation, but her body was falling apart, the mace hit her a bit too hard for comfort, and her knife was now across the room. The only thing she had was an arrow. Jane studied the bird girl movement. Jane loved powerful independent women. It made her feel so powerful. It made her feel like she couldn’t give up. It made her feel like she had to keep on trying even if she failed. She felt like she was becoming this stranger, but part of her strategic memory from another life told her it would be a lost cause. She had to make a strategic retreat if she wanted that life. She wouldn’t be able to take it now.

Jane frowned to herself. She wanted it now. She didn’t want to feel empty any longer then possible….but if she lose….they’ll try to strip her of all her lives again. They will put her in a room with no contact. She will be alone….she will have no life....

Strategic retreat…then life.

It was the only option, but Jane Doe stood her ground. If the woman did get close enough she would use the tip of the arrow to take the life instead of her knife.

[Deleted]

With the large number of criminals with strange habits in this world, it can be a bit daunting to try to keep track of all of them. However, Hawkgirl has found it useful to try to have a passing knowledge of as many of them as possible, and when you hear about someone who literally wears another person's skin and pretends to be them, you remember.

She has to smirk slightly when Jane asks for her names. If the woman has never heard of Hawkgirl, something that's getting rarer and rarer these days since the formation of the Justice League, then she has the advantage. Or is it that the woman is only asking to get her real name? Having a true secret identity may be of limited use to her because there's no hiding the wings, but she's not about to hand it out like candy, and especially not to someone like Jane. Just like how she's not about to remove her mask without good reason.

"The only name I have that matters to you is Hawkgirl," she replies, straightening when she sees that Jane isn't going to try something stupid like attacking her immediately. Which really would have been stupid - she's much stronger than a human and can toss them around like rag-dolls, and even disarmed she's a more than capable fighter. In fact, Hawkgirl's tactical mind quickly notes that she's already made an error by not fleeing and hoping she would not be pursued because of the rescuer's concern for the victim. Even odder because Hawkgirl is not used to seeing such bravery in humans without powers - something that makes her suspicious and cautious. At least, as cautious as Hawkgirl gets.

And so she doesn't attack immediately herself - instead she pauses and watches Jane for a moment very carefully, before giving one seemingly casual flap of her wings. Casual and yet the gust thrown in Jane's direction gives her just a taste of the power behind them. Those wings are strong enough to carry not only Hawkgirl but also a big guy like Batman with minimal effect to her flying ability. And if the wings are that strong, how strong must the rest of her be? It's a very clear warning, which is perhaps only fair to give if Jane has never heard of her.

But meanwhile, Hawkgirl keeps one ear on the girl behind her, trying to judge just how hurt she is. Saving a life is more important to her than catching a criminal, if it comes to that, so Artemis is the top priority. Still, letting a criminal go puts further lives in jeopardy, so if the girl doesn't need immediate assistance then it would be irresponsible for her to let Jane get away. Not to mention that Hawkgirl is the last one to back down from a fight if Jane wants to give her one.